Wireless data transmission, in its broadest manifestation, has long been a beneficial means by which to transfer information from one location to a distant location. For example, broadcasts transmitted using radio frequency (RF) signals have delivered audio and video programming and similar information to distant locations for decades. As the transfer of information continues its stampede to becoming one of the most valuable commodities in the world, the high-speed transmission of tremendous amounts of data is becoming more essential to the everyday function of many companies. In addition, the desire to avoid the movement restrictions associated with hard-wired network connections, for example, land-based telephone lines or cable jacks, presents an even greater challenge for high-speed data transmission networks.
As a result, high-speed wireless data transfer has quickly become a highly profitable field of technology, with each competitor seeking the fastest data transfer capabilities, along with the fewest possible errors in the data stream. The traditional approach to wireless data transfer has been to employ RF signals to transmit the data from a transmitter to a distant receiver. With this conventional approach, data is first converted to an analog format so that it may be transmitted using RF signals. The data is then transmitted to a receiver by modulating the analog data on an RF carrier wave, amplifying the signal, and transmitting the signal to a waiting receiver. The receiver receiving the data signal demodulates the RF signal to extract the analog data stream, and forwards the data for conversion back to a binary format so that it may be used as desired.
However, when the data to be transmitted is in binary format, as is the case with data such as computer data, special components designed to convert the data from binary to analog and back to binary format for modulation and demodulation, respectively, is required. More specifically, complex circuitry for such a task is required, typically increasing the overall manufacturing costs of data transmission devices. Moreover, as the complexity of the circuitry increases, which is often the case as data transmission speed is increased in an analog transmission system, the cost and volume of the circuitry also increase. Also, the quality of the transmission system components is often required to be higher to reduce errors during high-speed data transfer of such modulated analog signals. Still further, such high-quality and complex circuitry tends to be difficult to design and power-consumptive, both of which further increase overall manufacturing and operational expense.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a high-speed data transmission system for wireless transmission of data that does not suffer from the deficiencies associated with prior art transmission systems.